Training Log Archive: AliC

Finally the miserable caught up to me after days of sore throat + cough but otherwise feeling ok. Still agonized over the call to not race in the morning (sorry to roommate Alex who had to put up with the upset me most!), but in the end put on jeans instead of o-pants and drove over to the race ready to write a petition instead of playing in the cool limestone cliff + cave terrain. =(

Still fun to hear how the race went for others and just hang out with the extended orienteering family from all over!

And I'm happy to be racing the spring, long and relay at WOC. Those races were my top choices and the ones I'm most excited to train for and try to have good results in, so here goes!!

TT Long

Woke up with the sore throat a bit worse, but still had good energy, so decided to go for it. But knowing I was at least somewhat sick, I raced conservatively, never letting myself fully push on uphills or trail runs. That worked out alright, as I ended up winning by a bunch after a pretty clean race.

Biggest issues were:
2 - Initially overshot, not having gone high enough on the slope. Backtracked when I found a pit instead of a depression.
7 - Got confused at the beginning of the trail run, when the trail split in two and I hadn’t been paying enough attention to realize either was ok, it was just a short fork.
12 - My contact got torn in two by a tree branch and made it really hard for me to see through my left eye. I tried to take it out, to no avail. Then Kseniya and West Pointer passed me, and I knew going to my next control so I followed. But we all got lost, heading too high from the (unmapped) stream bed. Afterwards, I coped with my eye and orienteered on my own, albeit a bit slower.

Long - 10 F-21 11 M-20 - Splits

Event: Flying Pig XIX - U.S. Individual Champs - Sprint-Middle-Long
 

Warming up in the much colder weather! Partly a-chatting with Alex.

TT Sprint

Happy to have won! Not beautiful orienteering, not yet full speed, but for March and having a bad sore throat, ok.

Started in a minor kerfuffle due to having grabbed the wrong control descriptions (9 Red instead of 7 Green J/ 10 F 21+), but I realized as I took the map from the map bin, so sorted out in time.

1 - Ok, slightly disturbed passing by the very early uncrossable fence without really noticing, but then everything added up.
2 - Easy, went right.
3 - Again easy, read ahead to 4 and 5.
4- Fine on way there, then ran by it and had to turn around! Just a few paces.
5- Fine.
6- Saw that I had to go south and around, but then was too scared to cross the biggish wall-fence even though it was marked as crossable. Bad.
7 - Fine.
8 - Went back down the super-steep hill I went up to get to 7. Perhaps not as good as right route choice without super steepness? Unsure.
9 - Good.
10 - Worst leg! Saw that the closest maybe-way through was a trap, but not the next narrow passage to the left, so attempted that and lost a bunch of time.
11 - Chasing down Alison, unhappy to have lost time to her on 10.
12-13-14 - All fine.
16 - Wrong route choice, Alison caught me again (I went right, she went left). A bit longer my way.
17 - Fine.
18 - Went right, but looks pretty equal?
19 - 20 Fine.
21 - Blah! Did not see the trap at all! So got to the wall E of 21 and stopped and stressed and then ran around north.
22 - Fine.
23 - Read control description carefully, saw it was in N inner corner, thus up, so correctly went over bridge.
24 - Initially thought ropes course was a graveyard, quickly figured out.

C • on to control 10 on sprint 2

Sprint - 7 Green J 10 F-21 - Splits

Yay for other astronomer-orienteers! Got an email last week or so from Ann Marie saying she'd seen my name on the conference list and asking if I'd be interested in orienteering at Catalina on the afternoon off- of course!

So Ann Marie, Tom and I headed down after hearing about exoplanet formation theory all morning (the streaming instability and pebbles are all the rage) and geared up for some more desert orienteering.

Scariest things: Hearing a rattle snake! Eep! And got a cholla pod stuck to me for the first time.

Southwest Spring Blue Long (8.3k)

1- Saw a dead snake in the first meadow, eep! Trail to reentrant to second set of double boulders.
2- Bearing and long reentrant right before.
3 - Not sure I ended up in the right small reentrant, or perhaps was in right one just too low. I didn't feel in great contact approaching circle. Deflecting left earlier would have made a surer approach.
4- Used the trail mostly, because so tough to pick ones way amongst the rocks and cacti! Then spotted the proper saguaro and ran to it.
5- Good.
6- Daintily going around cholla forrest. Didn't do a great job of going the right direction on nose, should have noticed change in direction of contours earlier.
7 - Looong leg. Eep! Heard a rattle of a rattle snake. But was already on my way running past the sound, so just kept going. Deflected onto an unmarked trail at one point, had to descent to get back to desired trail. Good after leaving trail, but following indistinct trail was slow.
8 - Easy.
9 - Adventures in washland. Had to get used to what was mapped as what, but then made sense.
10 - Ran past because mini-reentrant itself was nearly invisible, but later trail emerging from wash let me know I went too far.
11 - Good.
12 - Initially too close to road.
13 - Think I must have been one reentrant north...
14 - Initially one reentrant off to the northwest.
15, 16, 17 - Fine, back in washland/campground.

C • Rattlesnakes 3

Morning run with 4 other astronomers (woo!) in Oracle State Park. Tom's boss came back alive, a good thing! Washes apparently can count as trails. Sandy!

Putter around the grounds of Biosphere 2. Still at a bit of altitude 4500, but legs are just tired from past 2 days.